Background to ISPO

Due to the nature of the job pilots must be self-confident and assertive, but at the same time team players able to slot into any vessel’s bridge team during the most critical phases of a vessel’s passage.

Pilots believe they offer quality services but ever increasingly there is demand, particularly from the oil industry, for transparency and auditable standards from the services offered by pilots.

Furthermore, adopting  the ISPO system gives you an good opportunity to have a close look at all processes within a pilotage organisation. It delivers a management system that not only promotes a safety culture but allows for continual improvement.

The ISPO code was developed by the Dutch pilots, Lloyds Register and the European Maritime Pilots Association (EMPA)

In 2005 the pilots’ organization in the Rotterdam-Rijnmond region of Holland was the first in the world to be ISPO accredited.
Since 2005 ISPO has been adopted by an increasing number of pilot organizations, all with the same aim of providing a high quality and auditable service to ports and ship owners.

 The Antwerp-based harbour pilots, associated within CVBA BRABO, were certified in 2007, the Amsterdam pilots at the end of 2008. The Varna Pilots (Bulgaria) in the spring of 2009. The Forth Pilots (Edinburgh) and the Dutch pilots of Loodswezen region North in 2010. Trinidad and Tobago became ISPO accredited in 2011.

Other pilot organizations worldwide are ISPO compliant and working towards accreditation .